Electrical question

[big "E"]

My lights seem to run the battery down at an excelerated rate when using two lights on one battery.It seems to go a lot faster than what you would expect.Is there a way to reduce this?If I cut the leads on the lights and run them both on one set of leads ,will this help?Thanks for any reply.Eric.

[JimmyS]

Eric, I don't think running both lights on one set of leads will reduce the voltage draw on your battery.I would suggest using a volt meter between your lights and the battery on the postive side of you lead and see how much voltage the lights are drawing from your battery. If you still have the paperwork that came with you lights it should say how much voltage they should draw. My guess is that your battery might be weak. But thats just my thoughts. Good luck and good fishing Jimmy S.

[big "E"]

Thanks for the reply Jimmy,Ill do that.I to, think the battery is weak , as its an old one.Thats why I only use it for the lights.

[Moose1am]

You might want to measure how many amps are being drawn by the lights. The voltage will be 12 volts. What you need to know is how many amps are being used by the lights.

A lot of guys take a spare battery just for one light. Using two lights will double the amount of amps being used if the lights are identical. So your battery will last 1/2 times as long as it would if you were only using one light at a time.

Battery are rated in amp hours so you can calculate how long a battery should last under a certain load.

My lights seem to run the battery down at an excelerated rate when using two lights on one battery.It seems to go a lot faster than what you would expect.Is there a way to reduce this?If I cut the leads on the lights and run them both on one set of leads ,will this help?Thanks for any reply.Eric.

[rango]

eric, i dont have much luck trying to run two lights off one battey, if its an older one. if i have a newer one it pulls two lights ok, but will drain a battery a lot faster than one will. on my boat, we use one battery at each rod rack, up to five fishing. if i have anymore than that, then ill double up. these batteries are used only for the night lights and not the cranking battery. when i get ready to go, i dont want a dead battery. i usually get about four years out of a battery, and buy em two at a time. id hate to guess how many charges i put on a set of batteries before i have to replace em. we night fish year round, two or three times a week, so its a good many. i read somewhere batteries should last longer than i get out of em. its all in how you charge em so i must be messing up the charge at times. make sure you dont let the battery get dry. charging em over and over will make em thirsty so keep em full of water.I just bought two to replace the ones i bought four year ago. last year i put two new ones on the boat. one of the four year olds still holds up, but the other must have developed a bad cell as the last time or two i used it, it wouldnt last an hour or so before it started dying.

[big "E"]

Thanks for the info.The battery in question is old , as I said , and Ive already replaced it.But I still keep it around for a spare.